English term
speak into
4 +1 | The church was told to influence culture by spreading its prophecies | Daryo |
3 | comment on, talk about | Yvonne Gallagher |
4 -3 | address | | ChatGPT | |
Purpose of prophetic ministry | Domini Lucas |
Non-PRO (1): AllegroTrans
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Responses
address
Example sentences:
1. The leader addressed the congregation, reminding them to speak into society's injustices with love and compassion.
2. As a writer, she aims to address pressing issues in her novels, speaking into the hearts and minds of her readers.
3. The activist group plans to speak into political debates, offering their perspective and urging for change.
neutral |
Ezz Eldeen Mohammad
: Welp, I guess I'm useless now
3 mins
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disagree |
Yvonne Gallagher
: once again AI shows how convincing it can be at waffling
58 mins
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disagree |
Björn Vrooman
: Agree with Yvonne. Also, as always, the example sentences are pure fiction.
2 hrs
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disagree |
Daryo
: A village fool would be more entertaining.
1 day 22 mins
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comment on, talk about
Only 3 Ghits for "speak into culture" and adding "prophetically" just one!
We use "speak into " for speaking INTO a device like a microphone or phone but otherwise it's "speak ON"=comment, or "speak ABOUT/TO" = address
At first, I thought they maight have wanted to say "talk into" = persuade or convince, as many non natives get "talk" and "speak" confused
I suggest foretell, predict for the "prophetically" part
The church was told to speak into culture prophetically >
The church was told to comment on culture in the future >
The church was told to address the issue of culture in the future>
The church was told to predict/foretell what would happen to culture
but more context IS needed
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Note added at 1 hr (2024-01-11 17:07:31 GMT)
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Sorry! typo 2nd line: should be "decipher"
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Note added at 6 hrs (2024-01-11 22:54:27 GMT)
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OK so I think I understand it better now having read some more.
This seems to be a particular meaning in religion to do with getting people to understand where the church is working/what it's doing/what are its intentions or aims while the church in turn tries to understand where/how people are within their own culture and lives and thus come to a better mutual understanding
https://www.stgeorgesepsom.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/11...
"Because the more we engage with culture, the more we can understand culture.
The more we understand culture, the more we can speak into culture.
And the more we can speak into culture
the more we can communicate our FAITH, IN CULTURE."
=======================================
Anyway, the word I'd use now would probably be COMMUNICATE (with people on their own level and within their own cultural norms)
neutral |
Chris Says Bye
: Also a pretty high confidence level for pure guesswork 😂
39 mins
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My CL is not 100% and I didn't make an AI-type statement as to meaning
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neutral |
Domini Lucas
: Not a prediction. Or commenting on/talking about. Being prophetic connects and has an effect. Maybe communicate but not sure that's sufficient on its own. Pls see discussion entries.
8 hrs
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yes, my first comments were not fully on point until I read further. Communicate or act as a bridge/medium between God and the congregation in the current times
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neutral |
Daryo
: "to communicate" would be the nearest, but when it comes to (any) religion, the "communication" tends to be rather unidirectional (/one-sided), so "spreading the word / our truth" would be more accurate.
23 hrs
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I think the "into" implies some sort of attempt to have multidirectional communication so as to have a better chance of influencing the congregation. Acting as a bridge/medium in other words
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The church was told to influence culture by spreading its prophecies
"I told The New York Times that the church of Jesus Christ and culture have always been at odds, and that we need to understand that the church was never called to accommodate culture," he says. "The church was called to prophetically speak into culture."
https://www.charismanews.com/marketplace/86772-megachurch-pa...
IOW what this pastor meant:
the church's "calling" was to infuse its prophecies into the outside culture. The church is meant to do the "speaking" and (the outside) culture to do the "listening", NOT the other way round.
BTW, this logic makes perfect sense from the viewpoint of this church, as it would make sense from the viewpoint of any religion / cult / ideology that all seek to expand their influence.
neutral |
Domini Lucas
: I agree with influence, not with spreading. Prophecy is not usually about "expanding" influence/imposing ideology. c.f. some of the Biblical prophets whose lives were not at all easy. The influence is usually about effecting a change of heart/direction.
1 hr
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This sentence is not about the prophecies themselves, but about prophecies used as content of the message to send out with the intent of the message landing INTO "the culture".
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neutral |
Yvonne Gallagher
: What on earth does "spreading prophecies" mean? I don't agree it's all one-sided but rather that a church is supposed to act as some sort of bridge between God and the congregation
3 days 21 hrs
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"spreading prophecies" = "prophecies" are the content of the message being spread around - is it really necessary to expand the abbreviated form? // It is one-sided in this sentence.
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agree |
Susana E. Cano Méndez
47 days
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Reference comments
Purpose of prophetic ministry
...
"When you learn how to prophesy over someone, one of the very first things you should understand is this: Prophecy is very much God’s word for now. It is the “sword of the spirit” in Ephesians 6:17 that speaks into today, or not at all.
In the same passage, the Bible itself could be described as the “belt of truth”. However, the bible is the general, universal, or eternal word of God.
While there are biblical principles that always apply to our lives, the relevance of a specific Bible verse to you or me, right now, depends on many factors.
A given prophecy may utilise the words of the Bible but always applies them in the moment.
The prophetic message may be shared in any format, being spoken, written, drawn, or even acted out. But it will always reveal something about God.
The message may well disclose something about the person on the receiving end, but it will leave no doubt that it was from the Lord, not from any earthly source.
It’s all about God’s presence.
What I mean by that is that God himself is present in every true prophecy, through his Spirit, in the here and now. He is the originator, the destination and the active agent of any prophetic message."
neutral |
Daryo
: It's a good example of what would be the content "spoken into" s.t. outside the church, but it doesn't explain what "speaking into" would mean.
17 hrs
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I agree. Still hoping for more context. Hope you are well. :-)
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Discussion
As the Q is indeed problematic without more context (and I also don't think we're going to get more), I'll bow out here too but not before wishing you both a sunny weekend!
Best
@ Björn @ Domini I didn't mean to restrict it solely to the "congregation" though I think the message being imparted would be addressed not only to it but also to the culture of the wider community
Anyway, thanks all for the discussion and shame the asker can't be bothered to give context or say thanks for our efforts.
Theology isn't my field (haven't chimed in on many of the other religious Qs, just this one because of the potential political overtones) so I learned something new RE the use of prophecy.
As for the denominational aspect: Further down, you said "denominational, i.e. Charismatic and/or Pentecostal." As hinted at above, I'm not well-versed in the intricacies of church organization, but I did look for differences between, e.g., Pentecostal and Anglican and got sent here:
https://denominationdifferences.com/compare/anglican-vs-pent...
https://ccx.org.uk/content/anglican-pentecostal-dialogue/
If it were anything like the Catholic-Protestant ecumenical relations, my guess would have been that Pentecostal and Anglican must be two denominations.
But as one of the answerers said here:
"'Pentecostal' is not as much of a denominational designation like the word 'Anglican' is. (Unless you are specifically referring to a denomination that uses the word Pentecostal in its name.) In fact, there is such a thing as 'Pentecostal Anglicans.'"
https://www.quora.com/What-difference-is-there-between-Pente...
Best
But I was referring ONLY to the specific sentence, which is about exercising influence, not the other way round.
Stopping one side from obliterating the other (as dramatic as it may sound) will, of course, require a more aggressive approach so I believe the wider context, as you've mentioned, would be really important to know.
On a side note, "speak into" is also being used in combination with other nouns:
"Here are some questions to ask yourself and perhaps ask others that you have given permission to speak into your leadership."
https://churchexecutive.com/archives/shaping-culture
"But while we are wise to be discerning in whom we let speak into our lives, we are always to believe the best about people. This includes leaders."
https://fullfocus.co/5-truths-to-remember-when-your-leader-f...
There's always a reference to Christianity in there somewhere, which means to me the phrase hasn't really gained general currency, but I'd say, in this kind of context, its meaning lies somewhere between "communicate" and "influence."
Best wishes and, to all of you, have a great weekend!
(a) try to understand where someone's coming from, what their life is like;
(b) speak to them on their level, using their language; and
(c) pointing out to them how the Bible provides answers to their questions.
That is roughly what I thought Yvonne meant (and what you echoed in your reply to my post) and it is pretty convincing--outside of conservative circles.
As for the orthodox or conservative interpretations of the phrase, especially in the US, I think the following sums them up pretty well:
"The truth is our culture has been chipping away at the Judeo-Christian value system for decades. Increasingly, the Christian viewpoint is unwelcome in public settings...How do we live courageously in a culture that wants to silence us?...How do we speak into a culture where the person who shouts the loudest wins the argument?"
https://jimdaly.focusonthefamily.com/engaging-the-culture-wi...
To conservatives, it's about the waning influence of religion; that's something most have in common on that side of the aisle.
[...]
@Domini
Not sure it's denominational; St Georges Epsom (see the NZ link) is an Anglican church. Funnily enough, its vicar, Josh Jones, is also a punk singer (and originally from the UK): https://www.localmatters.co.nz/health/punk-vicar-to-play-coa...
So I may have guessed wrong about US churchgoers being the only ones using the term, though it comes up quite often on American websites.
As said elsewhere, I used to read a lot of news articles and blog posts published by conservatives in the US (being part of a German-American household, I just wanted to understand their perspective a bit better).
And while some of those articles were studded with religious references, I don't remember ever seeing "speak into" in print (or online) so Yvonne shouldn't feel bad about not having come across it either =)
Also, from what I've read (now), I do think Yvonne's communicate "(with people on their own level and within their own cultural norms)" is a good fit; not certain why she's limiting it to "congregation" in her replies to you and Daryo.
[...]
The Church is meant to set values, not just follow the non-Church values, habits, lifestyle, etc. To be 'in the world but not of the world'.
@discussion re American or not: it may also be denominational, i.e. Charismatic and/or Pentecostal. (cf. also @Bjorn's charsismanews link) In which case having more context might clarify whether it is a general comment re the (wider) church influenciing culture (which I suspect is more likely) or whether individuals within certain church settings or contexts might be being asked to "deliver" what would be considered a direct message from God. It does sound more general here, however certain church contexts do include modern-day 'prophetic ministry' (if that doesn't mean much in short hand, I can expand - but unnecessary unless the provision of more context makes it a likely explanation).
I agree with you that it seems to be used in some American religious texts. I never saw it before :-(
https://www.churchandculture.org/blog/2017/6/26/finding-our-...
https://www.stgeorgesepsom.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2019/11...
https://www.eden.co.uk/christian-books/personal-life/social-...
etc. etc.
And I'm pretty sure this is the source of the asker's quote:
"'I told The New York Times that the church of Jesus Christ and culture have always been at odds, and that we need to understand that the church was never called to accommodate culture,' he says. 'The church was called to prophetically speak into culture.'"
https://www.charismanews.com/marketplace/86772-megachurch-pa...
It's an American thing, I guess.
Best
https://www.paul-gould.com/2012/06/13/christianity-in-the-21...
Malik believed that there was a crisis of his age that must be addressed so that there would be a viable Christian voice (to speak into culture) and Christian conscience (to give shape to culture). What was the crisis of the age, according to Malik (writing in 1962):[2]